2025-2026

Topic: Heidegger’s Critique of German Idealism

Martin Heidegger claimed that the entire western philosophical tradition reached its ‘culmination’ in the philosophy of German Idealism. In this course we will take this diagnosis seriously, work to understand its presuppositions and implications, and attempt to assess its cogency. We will read closely Heidegger’s major works on Kant, as well as his central writings on Kant’s immediate successors. In addition to supplementary readings from Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, we may also read excerpts from Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Christian Wolff, and Alexander Baumgarten.

(B) (IV)

This will be an introduction to philosophy through the music of Taylor Swift. We'll explore a range of philosophical themes using Swift's lyrics as a starting point. Such themes include the nature of love and desire, the ethics of fantasy, memory and nostalgia, revenge, aesthetics, and autonomy. No prior experience with philosophy required, nor does one have to be a Swiftie. (A)

This course will be an intensive introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant.

This course is a survey of recent work in feminist political philosophy. We’ll focus on three interrelated themes: objectification; the relation of gender oppression to the economic structure of society; and the problem of “intersectionality,” that is, the problem of how to construct adequate theories of gender injustice given that gender “intersects” with other axes of oppression, e.g. race and class. Authors we’ll read include: Martha Nussbaum, Sandra Bartky, Angela Davis, Iris Marion Young, Nancy Fraser, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, and Serene Khader. (A)

Plato’s theory of forms is perhaps the first complete philosophical idea in the Greek tradition. It is so fundamental to the activity of philosophy, that the entire subject might be summarized as “a series of alternatives to Plato’s theory of Forms.” We sketch out the development of this theory from its earliest presentations in dialogues like the Republic through Plato’s own reconsideration of the theory in Parmenides, to the late presentations of the theory in Sophist and Philebus. (B)